Not Blogwars
Iain Dale and I have been having a little discussion in this post about standards of behaviour on the internet.
I’m going to repost a comment I addressed to him which explains why this isn’t a “blogwar” and why Iain’s behaviour should be of interest to anyone involved with political blogging.
(To put it in context, Iain had just deployed the “there are plenty of other blogs out there” defence. It’s otherwise known as the “leave me alone, I don’t want to talk about this” gambit.)
I’m going to explain in the simplest terms I can why “there are plenty of other blogs out there” doesn’t do it for me.
You are compiling a book called “100 People Who Are Screwing Up Britain”. If I was to say “if these people are not good enough for you, there are plenty of other people out there” or “why don’t you pay attention to the people you like and ignore the ones you don’t” it’d be very silly indeed. Scrutiny is an essential part of the democratic process, you’d rightly point out.
You are one of the UK’s highest profile political bloggers. As such, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that you’ll be subjected to a reasonable level of scrutiny by other bloggers.
The fact that you seem very keen to discourage people from doing so - “what a waste of their time” - tells a story all on its own.
Iain has become a public figure in the political blogging world and he claims to have influence when it suits him. If you do a search from his sidebar, you might see an advert which says this at the top of the results page:
Want to reach the people advising Britain’s next Prime Minister?
They all read Iain Dale’s Diary.
That may or may not be an exaggeration but he clearly is read by a lot of people. As such, it is ridiculous to suggest that other bloggers should simply stop scrutinising his blog and leave him alone if they don’t like what he writes. Iain certainly doesn’t abide by the principle himself so why is he trying to fob people off with this nonsense?
Tim Ireland has blogged the conversation.
I’ll add a few further thoughts tomorrow. Well, strictly speaking it’ll be later today.
Belated Update
Here’s a short summary of the situation. Iain wrote a post on standards of behaviour on the internet. This is clearly the perfect place to raise issues regarding Iain’s own standards but that didn’t stop him from later claiming that I was off-topic rather than addressing the issue I’d raised.
I attempted to post a link to Bloggerheads which highlighted a conversation which Iain had had with Tim and then later deleted with no explanation. That comment didn’t see the light of day.
I asked Iain why it hadn’t appeared. That comment was allowed but there was no response. I submitted another comment asking him again and including the original comment in full for a second time. It wasn’t allowed either but Iain did reply. This reply contained a glaring inconsistency.
And so, a conversation (of a sort) was born. It’s ongoing at the moment. Furthr thoughts once it concludes.
Tim Ireland said,
October 24, 2007 @ 10:06 am
I enjoyed his “What?! How dare you insult me?” whopper more than anything else. Keep a sharp eye out for the “I can’t win!” victim gambit that neatly sidesteps the fact that Iain created this tangled web himself.
Matt W said,
October 24, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
Belated congratulations on the move.
Go Wordpress.
Garry said,
October 24, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Tim, that really was a beauty.
I’m back in the “ignore” zone at the moment. I’ve just submitted another comment challenging him on his claim that your response contained vitriol and pointing out that his rules mean I can’t provide the evidence which proves that it was unjustified.
I might get the “I can’t win” gambit out of him yet as he seeks to avoid the issues yet again.
Matt W, thank you. Wordpress really is the cat’s whiskers.
Tim Ireland said,
October 24, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
I’ve just seen his reply. He’s ’stooped so low’ as to hit me with the ‘obsessive’ tag. Again.
How often does he expect to get away with dodging a question on multiple occasions and then labelling a persistent opponent as obsessive?
Also, regarding his claims to have addressed the Flickr matter to the best of his ability, I know he’s keen on revising blog history, but he’s missed a couple of images clearly watermarked ‘backingblair.co.uk’… and he has not yet addressed the images hosted on his weblog.
Garry said,
October 24, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
Ah, the ironies of Iain Dale. Someone should write a book about them.
poons said,
October 24, 2007 @ 9:41 pm
Is there a bucket big enough for the author?
Garry said,
October 25, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
Maybe he’s managed to find a bucket big enough to hide in. He hasn’t answered the questions and doesn’t seem to want to continue the conversation any longer.
In Conversation with Iain Dale | Big Sticks and Small Carrots said,
October 27, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
[…] had originally intended to add further thoughts to this post once the conversation I’d started with Iain had come to an end but given the length of time […]